Rahul Mishra was inspired by the cosmos for his spring couture collection. The idea began with an ancient Indian philosophy espousing that “what is outside you is also inside you, for you are a micro-version of the macro-cosmos,” he explained.
Mishra said that generally, when people look into the cosmos, it’s upward, toward the celestial sphere. “But when you look downward, like within our planet, even a dewdrop can have an entire cosmos,” he said.
There are issues of relativity. What’s considered up might actually be down. “Someone seeing us from outer space will feel like we are hanging upside down,” he said.
“The idea also started with what we are gifted with,” continued Mishra, referring to elements like a natural landscape or a ladybug. “Maybe the idea of small and large are just related. It’s all one.”
He found fascinating the exercise of translating such notions of the cosmos into garments. “How do you challenge the idea of scale completely?” Mishra said.
He tried, and to dazzling effect. Minute handworked details, with beading and embroidery, created fish shapes that were larger than the rendering of Saturn. A dress assumed a jellyfish shape, while a cityscape hung upside down as offbeat fringe.
The opening, floor-length, colorful gown with a bustier top had on it images of a universe unto itself, decorated with motifs of fish, galaxies, flowers, snails and flowing water. Another dress had a black, shimmering long-sleeved top decorated with larger-than-life hand-crafted gold-colored ladybugs, while a luscious landscape, with flowers, trees, fruits and giraffes, sprung up on the rest.
Mishra presented voluminous silhouettes, as well as formfitting bodysuits, working closely on corsetry for spring. Accessories included golden headbands, with similarly hued bird or fish motifs, made of beads and embroidery, jutting off them.
It’s all the stuff of dreams. “Dreams can be bigger than anything,” Mishra said.